On November 21, a story-sharing secession on China-Panama friendship was held in Panama City jointly held by the local government and government of Guangzhou city in south China, as well as associations concerned in the lead up to the 2018 G20 Summit. Focusing on the win-win cooperation and shared development brought by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which connects China with Panama, political, business and academic figures from both sides shared stories about business and people-to-people exchanges at the event and over 2000 Chinese and Panamanians expressed their hope for sustainable cooperation through this platform.
A jewel of the Central American isthmus, Panama connects South America to North America and the Pacific to the Atlantic. The bilateral friendship along the Maritime Silk Road began in 1854 when the ship Sea Witch carried Chinese to Panama for the first time.
Evidently, a deepening relation between Guangzhou and Panama, between China and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has hinged on surging business exchanges and a century-old friendship based on mutual assistance.
Both counties have been witnessing unrecorded momentum in economic and social cooperation and exchanges as a result of their establishment of diplomatic relations in 2017. Tangible benefits have been delivered to people of both nations. Embassies to each other were established. A Beijing-Panama City non-stop air route was launched. Panama is seeing an influx of Chinese companies that are expanding business and taking part in the infrastructure building. Panama signed a cooperation agreement with China on the feasibility research of implementing a Panama railway project.
Today, China-Panama friendly cooperation is producing more results in a broader way. Xinzhuang Elementary School of Huadu District, Guangzhou and Panama’s Chinese-Panamanian Cultural Center (Sun Yat-Sen Institute) became sister schools this July.
“The second, third and fourth generations of Chinese Panamanian contributed much to the growth of Panama. They are becoming elites of all trades, so talented that a patient has to be sent to a Chinese doctor before claimed incurable. It is the exact case showing the professional overseas Chinese are highly recognized by the locals,” said Doctor Enrique Lau Cortes at the session. He is president of the International Affairs Research Association of Panama, whose grandfather set foot on the land more than a century ago when the Panama Canal started operation.
Guangzhou is hopeful that exchanges on its innovation and technology on educational and scientific research fronts with the LAC will increase for greater interconnectivity and sustainability.
Rich resources having been gained for a century make it possible for a more comprehensive Guangzhou-Panama relationship. “Among the three-million residents in Panama, some 200,000 are from Huadu of Guangzhou originally,” said Liu Yanglie, president of Huadu Panamanian Association.
On the eastern end of the Pacific, Huadu is home to a Panamanian village, where half of the villagers are staying in Panama. Over the past year, Guangzhou has been seeing thriving cultural and business exchanges with Panama, including sending professional teachers to Panamanian schools. Already, the city has become a portal of great importance for the Panamanian to gain a deeper understanding of China and its culture.
“Each of the LAC countries has been an indispensable contributor to the construction of the Belt and Road. Panama acts as a critical connector as the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road extents to the region,” addressed Jiang Jianguo, Deputy Director-general of China’s Publicity Department at the event.
The LAC is embracing a promising future of win-win cooperation as it promotes the BRI amid China’s new round of reform and opening up. In recent years, the China-LAC trade has registered an annual average growth of over 30 percent and China has now become the second largest trading country for the region.
Both Guangzhou and Panama benefit in this round of development. In 2017, the Guangzhou-Panama trade value grew by 9.8% to USD 320 million, of which imports from Panama stood at USD 15 million, up 64.1%.
As a link between the LAC and Asian markets, the Panama Canal serves as a testimony to the benefits of interconnectivity to people. More than a century ago, overseas Cantonese contributed greatly to the construction of the canal; in 2014, the Guangzhou-based COSCO SHIPPING Specialized Carriers Co., Ltd. participated in the canal’s expansion by transporting heavy parts for new ship locks.
“Today, we have ocean shipping routes to Panama. Amid an increasing bilateral trade, our ships have been allowed to berth more than 100 ports of American countries, including Panama, Ukraine, Brazil and Argentina. In 2017, COSCO SHIPPING was part of construction of an LNG shipping dock at Panama’s Colon Free Trade Zone,” said an official from COSCO SHIPPING.
A strategic prospect for relations between China and Panama and even the Central America is portrayed by Eddie Tapiero, a specialist on the China-Panama relations and international economics at Panama Canal Authority, in his new book The Silk Road and Panama. In his view, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) represents an opportunity that the LAC must seize, which will help the region make visible differences.
“Interconnectivity, is a keyword in the BRI, aiming to connect small markets to larger ones,” said Professor Wang Yiwei, a senior research fellow at Renmin University of China, at the session.
SOURCE: The People’s Government of Guangzhou Municipality
